If you can be judged by the company you keep – or replace – local jazz singer Stephanie Jordan is operating at a very high level.

Ted Jackson / The Times-PicayuneLocal jazz singer Stephanie Jordan will be featured in a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan in Chicago on Feb. 18.

Acclaimed contemporary soul singer Ledisi was scheduled to sing with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble on Feb. 18 in a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. However, the four-time Grammy nominee, who was born in New Orleans but moved away as a child, dropped off the bill after joining a tour featuring KEM and El DeBarge.

So instead of performing with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on the Columbia College Chicago campus on the 18th, Ledisi will be with KEM et al at the Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie outside Dallas, Tex. The next night, Feb. 19, she joins KEM and El DeBarge at the UNO Lakefront Arena.

With Ledisi suddenly unavailable, Jordan was invited to fill in. So she’ll sing the music of Fitzgerald and Vaughan – among the most cherished repertoires in jazz – in Chicago on Feb. 18.

Jordan is the daughter of local jazz educator and avant-jazz saxophonist Edward “Kidd” Jordan. Her siblings include trumpeter Marlon, flutist Kent and violinist Rachel Jordan. In 2008, Stephanie wowed a national television audience when she teamed with saxophonist Branford Marsalis and guitarist Jonathan Dubose on a jazzy, re-imagined "Star-Spangled Banner" prior to the NBA Allstar Game at the New Orleans Arena.